Ursula Mayer has been announced winner of Film London’s Jarman Award 2014 at a ceremony held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. The artist filmmaker receives £10,000 and a Channel 4 commission for Random Acts, the broadcaster’s short-form arts strand.
From the shortlist of ten, Sebastian Buerkner, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, and Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard also receive Random Acts commissions.
Mayer studied at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal College of Art between 1990 and 1996, before returning to study for an MA at Goldsmiths College between 2004 and 2005. She has exhibited extensively in major festivals and institutions worldwide, and her films Medea (2013) and Gonda (2012) currently form part of an installation for Mirrorcity at the Hayward Gallery.
This year’s judging panel comprised filmmaker John Maybury; Iwona Blazwick OBE, director, Whitechapel Gallery; John Hay, commissioning editor for arts, Channel 4; Steven Cairns, ICA associate curator of artists’ film and moving image; and artist and filmmaker Beatrice Gibson.
Of their selection, the jury said: “It was the work of Ursula Mayer that came closest to touching on the language that Derek Jarman himself so often strived for. Fusing historical research with a dazzling contemporary aesthetic, Mayer brings to life the heroines and bêtes noir of feminist Modernism.”
Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said: “Artist filmmaking continues to be at the forefront of innovation in the art world.
“Our winner Ursula Mayer has a body of work that is truly inspired, and encapsulates what we seek to promote: bold, beautiful, distinctive and boundary-crossing filmmaking that manages to both challenge and reward.”
Also on a-n.co.uk:
The Jarman Award: 2014 shortlist announced
Veteran filmmaker wins the 2013 Jarman Award
